What interviewers assess in a job interview (and how to prepare)

The seven criteria that weigh in the decision

1. 1

   Fit with the role’s duties

   Have you done something similar to what you would do here? Read the job ad line by line and find, for each duty, a specific example of yours. Where you have none, prepare it as something you can do by another route.

2. 2

   Relevant experience

   Not how many years, but which ones. Order your career so it makes sense for this role: what you did, in what context and with what result.

3. 3

   Skills

   The skills they ask for, demonstrated. “I am a good communicator” proves nothing; a specific situation, what you did and what happened, does.

4. 4

   Motivation for the role

   Why this role and this company, not just any job. Have an answer that only works for them.

5. 5

   Cultural fit and values

   How you work, decide and relate to people. Think of two or three situations that show it, and ask how they work too.

6. 6

   Salary expectations

   If your range does not match theirs, nothing else matters. Have it thought through, with a realistic minimum and a rationale, and do not improvise it.

7. 7

   Availability

   Start date, notice period, working arrangement, travel. It looks like a formality, but a mismatch here can close a process that was going well in every other way.

Beyond these seven, many interviews weigh how you express yourself: clarity, listening, composure when the question gets tough. You do not prepare that by memorising, but by rehearsing out loud.

How to prepare criterion by criterion

Turn the seven criteria into a worksheet. For each one, write the likely question, your best example and the doubt you think your profile may raise.

That last column is the important one. If you have been out of work for eight months, come from another sector or your last role was more senior, your interviewer will think it even if they do not ask. Better they hear it from you, with context, than fill it in with assumptions.

Structured interviews, where all candidates answer common questions and are rated on the same criteria, are among the selection methods that best predict job performance (Sackett et al., 2022). If your interview is like that, preparing by criteria is exactly what you need. If it is a looser conversation, it still helps you not to leave anything important unsaid.

Preparation sheet by criteria

Copy it into a document and fill it in before every interview. Ten minutes is enough.

1. Fit with the duties · my example: … · possible doubt: …
2. Relevant experience · my example: … · possible doubt: …
3. Skills · my example: … · possible doubt: …
4. Motivation · why here and not elsewhere: …
5. Cultural fit · how I work, in a specific situation: …
6. Salary expectations · my range and my rationale: …
7. Availability · start date, notice, arrangement: …

At the end: two questions I will ask, and ask for my interviewer’s email.

Writing it down forces you to find specific examples, and a specific example is remembered far better than a quality stated in the abstract.

The preparation almost nobody does: knowing how they saw you

You prepare each interview based on what you think happened in the last one. But what you think happened and what your interviewer saw do not always match: you can leave convinced the technical part was a disaster when what actually weighed was availability.

Without that information, every interview starts from scratch. With it, you know which criterion to strengthen and which already works.

How to ask for it yourself, with an email template: How to ask for feedback after an interview

Feedback on those same seven criteria

In KoManao you register each interview with your interviewer’s email and turn on the feedback request. About twelve days later we ask them, on your behalf, to rate these seven criteria: one click per criterion, one minute, no account needed. If they wish, they can add a short recommendation.

The person rating you is your interviewer, not KoManao or any algorithm. We get the request to them and organise the answers for you, interview by interview, so you can see what repeats.

Not everyone replies, and we cannot make anyone. But every assessment that arrives is information you could not get any other way, and that no AI can give you by rehearsing with you.

We only write to the address you register, for that interview, never for marketing, with one-click opt-out. If you register none, we write to no one.

Frequently asked questions

What matters most in a job interview?

It depends on the role, but fit with the duties, relevant experience and motivation almost always weigh heavily. Salary expectations and availability take up less of the conversation, but can close a process on their own.

How can I tell if my interview went well?

Signals in the moment (it runs long, they introduce you to the team) are a hint, but not reliable. The surest way is to ask your interviewer, and they are more likely to reply if you ask them to rate a few specific criteria than if you ask for an open explanation.

Is it useful to practise the interview with ChatGPT?

For rehearsing answers and calming your nerves, yes. What an AI cannot tell you is how a specific person saw you in a real interview. For that, you have to ask them.

Sources

• Sackett, Zhang, Berry and Lievens, “Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection”, Journal of Applied Psychology (2022)